After building up an impressive track record, S. Goldman Asset Management's first hedge fund is ready to meet the outside world.

The New York-based institutional money manager has decided to open its SG Aurora Fund to outside investors for the first time. The hedge fund, which launched in August 2009, has enjoyed annualized returns of 19%, HFMWeek reports.

S. Goldman has named Kerry Baldwin director of marketing to begin pitching the $45 million event-driven and special-situations vehicle to family offices. Baldwin formerly worked at Lyxor U.S., Société Générale and hedge fund Pirate Capital.

Initially, S. Goldman hopes to roughly double the fund's assets to $100 million. But the firm has much bigger plans, with future capacity levels of $250 million, $500 million and, eventually, $1 billion. The firm said it will consider creating separately-managed accounts employing the strategy if there is client demand for such a structure.

"Change is being accelerated by the cheap cost of capital, and corporate activity is increasing," Sheldon Goldman, chief investment officer, said. "Event-driven investing is an attractive discipline for selecting among opportunities, without any bias to industry, geography or part of the capital structure."

SG Aurora, which is managed by Chris Testa, formerly of Drake Management and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, charges 1.25% for management and 25% for performance above a 6% hurdle. There is a $1 million minimum investment requirement with a two-year lockup; liquidity is quarterly thereafter.

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